Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, researchers compared survey response data from public school kindergarten teachers in 1998 and 2010 to investigate changes across five dimensions: teachers’ beliefs about school readiness, curricular focus and use of time, classroom materials, pedagogical approach, and assessment practices.
Overall, researchers found that kindergarten has indeed become more like first grade. When asked to rate the importance of thirteen school readiness skills, 2010 teachers tended to rate all of them as more important than their 1998 counterparts had. This was true for academic skills (identifying letters, counting to twenty) and non-academic ones (being “sensitive to others’ feelings,” problem solving).
The most striking change in beliefs was related to reading: only 31 percent of 1998 teachers believed that children should learn to read in kindergarten; by 2010, that figure had risen to 80 percent. In short, teachers expect more from kindergarteners than they did in the 1990s-not necessarily a bad thing, given that their expectations have an enormous influence on student behavior and achievement.
However, the findings also point to an unfortunate narrowing in curriculum. Namely, the percentage of those teaching daily music and art went down (by eighteen and sixteen percentage points, respectively). It’s not that music or art disappeared altogether; they just happened less often.
Schools serving more low-income and non-white children were more likely to use didactic instruction and less likely to provide hands-on learning opportunities. Yet low-income students, again, are more likely to receive poorly structured pedagogy and get shortchanged.
Today’s kindergarten classrooms are increasingly rigorous, meaning that youngsters who come to school unprepared are at an even greater disadvantage than in the past. The study reminds us of the importance of high-quality, targeted preschool, as well as teacher policies that ensure that kindergarten students-especially those with skills deficiencies-don’t get short shrift.
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